Lord of the Hunt

by Shona Husk

His expression didn’t change. “You seem assured your father will submit to the Court.”

  She placed her hand over her heart. “I’m certain of his love for my mother and he wouldn’t wish her dead.”

  He nodded, considering her carefully with his frost- tinged eyes. Did he see the winter in his gaze when he looked in the mirror? “A wager then?”

  Ah, crap. “I’m not sure I can afford to gamble with you, sire.” Back away slowly and hope he doesn’t follow. She didn’t want to get tricked into debt with the King and be exiled. Is that what had happened to her father?

  The King leaned his elbow on the table and looked at her. “You’ve been here long enough to learn the ways of the Court. My bed has been cold too long.”

  Taryn forced herself to keep breathing and not freak out. Felan had said his father never did that, that while he favored women publicly, he was always alone privately. But if he was dying, was he hoping for one last fling? Why her?

  She closed her eyes for a moment, willing herself not to look at Verden. He didn’t want to know. He just wanted it done so they could be together. She just wanted it done so they could leave this place once Felan was King. How long until that happened? She didn’t want this. She wanted to get free of the King, not fall deeper.

  Taryn drew in a slow breath and opened her eyes. The King was watching. Had he seen her internal battle? Was it all a game to him to see what he could win? Of course it was. She was a mouse and he was a cat. He’d let her go when he was ready—unless she found a hole to slip through. That’s all she needed, a chance.

  She could do this. She could make the bet and win. She was going to throw up. She swallowed and hoped she hadn’t turned as white as the mushrooms.

  “What do you propose?” Her voice sounded totally level, as if she were in control. How fairy was she becoming? No, she didn’t want to be like these people. Yet with every breath she took here, the more like them she became.

  “If you succeed in getting your father to take the offer of being a shadow servant, he gets his pardon and you are free to find another lover; if you fail, I get you until the end of my rule.” He leaned closer to her, his breath on her shoulder. “Not long at all really.” Then he leaned back to judge her reaction.

  “Will you make him serve the year and a day?”

  “No, full pardon, and they may return to Court—although I can’t guarantee status.”

  Taryn nodded as if considering. It was too simple a deal. “What is the catch?”

  The King gave a low laugh. “You do catch on quick. No mention of the deal we’re making or any part of it to your father.”

  Okay. Which meant she couldn’t mention that he would get the pardon, only that he had to take the offer. Would he do that? He’d said he wanted to put things right before she’d left.

  “One question. Why me? Of all the women here, why me?” Was it because it would piss the Queen off as had been suggested?

  “You want something from me. It is only fair I get something from you. It is the way we work. Who is getting the better side of deal depends on where you sit.” He took another bite of food and looked at her, waiting for her answer.

  He was never going to give away his real reasons. Maybe he had none and he was just enjoying what time he had left by screwing with other people’s minds.

  She glanced at Felan, who’d brought her to Court, but couldn’t help her. He’d promised no harm would come to her parents, yet she knew he could do nothing to lift the exile.

  Her gaze then slid to Verden and the Queen. She didn’t want to betray either of them, for very different reasons.

  The King took in her glance. “You worry about the Queen.”

  “With good reason.” The last woman to cross the Queen had become a shadow.

  “Then I guess the question is how much do you trust your father to do the right thing?” The King wasn’t smiling now, and she realized she’d been cornered in a couple of clever lines.

  All words died on her tongue. She’d thought she could come in here and play their games and win; instead she’d been caught. All she could do was hope and pray her father would do what was right this time and take the offer, thus saving her from the King’s attention.

  “Of course I trust my father.” She knocked back the rest of the wine, glad that it wasn’t alcoholic but wishing that it was.

  “So you accept?”

  “I do.” She felt the weight settle around her, closing around her throat and choking her. A shadow refilled her goblet. She raised it in a toast to the King. “To tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow.” His goblet touched hers. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t as clever as your mother.”

  That was supposed to be a compliment, but it didn’t feel like one. Had Arlea once sat here and made promises and deals with the King to get on his council? Had she been more conniving than Sulia? More power hungry than the Queen? Yet she’d given it all up for love.

  Taryn had given up love for this. She couldn’t look at Verden in case her eyes revealed what she was feeling. She had to be a fairy capable of making deals that would kill a mortal or she wouldn’t survive.

  When the King took her hand and led her to the dance floor, she was numb. If she’d had a soul, it would be dead. As it was, her heart was held together with the finest strands of hope, like cobwebs. She took a breath and straightened her shoulders as the music filled her blood. His hand landed on her hip as he spun her around, his feet easily catching the beat. Everyone was watching as the King started the dance. Everyone was already assuming the worst or the best, depending on who they were, about her place in his favor.

  She could do this; the hardest part was done. She’d carved out her heart and made a deal with the King of Annwyn.

  Tomorrow she’d be free. Hopefully.

  Chapter 17

  Verden tried not to watch as Taryn danced, but when he looked across the dance floor, she was there, her lithe body in the King’s hands instead of his. No matter how many times he told himself it was for the best, it felt wrong. It felt as though someone had shoved a sword dipped in the river of damned souls through his chest and was slowly watching the poison creep through his body until it killed him. Which it would. He couldn’t watch. He couldn’t even be in the same room without wanting to stand up and tear Taryn free of the King’s embrace.

  But if he did, she’d hate him. She was doing this for her parents. She was a better daughter than he was a son. Maybe he didn’t deserve her. He couldn’t live in the mortal world and he’d have nothing to offer her in Annwyn once Felan was King.

  Taryn didn’t care. He remembered her smiling in the moonlight. Her lips on his. His body responded to the remembered heat, but his heart ached. No wonder most Court fairies refused to let their hearts be taken. It hurt.

  He wished he had stayed longer at his father’s house instead of racing back to Court for the festival. However, the scandal that would have caused wouldn’t be worth it. The Queen would have been livid, which meant the King would have also been annoyed, and the King and Queen needed to keep it together for a little longer.

  All those years of going through the motions and doing what was expected paid off. Verden clamped down on his pain and offered the Queen his hand and danced with her as if he wanted to. If not for her most recent poor behavior, she wouldn’t be hanging on the King’s favor by her fingernails. They were all dancing to the whims of an aging King who was ready to throw down the crown and walk away.

  Flashes of white body paint outlined limbs as people danced. A few women glowed from head to toe like diaphanous ghosts. If he were younger and less troubled, he might have found it tantalizing. The soft blue lighting cast everyone in shadows and luminescent highlights. It was hard not to feel the magic of midsummer and the changing of seasons in the air.

  What had Taryn said?

  While half the world turned toward winter, the other half turned toward summer. It was good to know that summer wouldn’t fade. That the world
wouldn’t suffer a winter the way Annwyn would.

  “You seem distracted.” The Queen tapped his arm in reprimand.

  “Only by the beauty you have created. A magnificent display.” He truly meant it. He hadn’t seen such an extravagant festival in many a cycle. Was this the one she wanted to be remembered for? He glanced down into her dark blue eyes, but they were inky mirrors and revealed nothing.

  “I would like a dance with my husband. Can you occupy his little tidbit?” She raised an eyebrow as if he weren’t up to the challenge.

  “You want me to dance with her?” His pulse hammered hard, but he couldn’t reveal what that would mean to him, to be able to dance with Taryn in public.

  Keep it polite and distant, he reminded himself.

  Eyra pulled away from his hold. “That would be ideal.” Then she was gliding through the swarm of dancers.

  Tonight there was no pleasant dance with set steps and pretty manners. There was gyrating and bodies getting flung high into the air and caught. He wanted to be part of that, to break out of the constraints and…and go wild. The festivals were where lust ran free, debts were paid, and prizes got claimed.

  His gaze landed on Taryn. She and the King had stopped dancing; fabric clung to her skin in all the right places. With leaves braided into her dark hair, she looked like a nymph awoken from slumber and needing to feed. He would willingly fall at her feet and offer himself as her sacrifice if she would take away the ache that filled his heart every time he looked at her.

  The luminescence above her eyes made her look exotic, while the markings on her collarbones drew his gaze down. The three stripes on each arm made her seem wild. Less was definitely more. While many women—and some men—appeared to have fallen into the body paint pot, on Taryn what wasn’t painted became more mysterious.

  He took her hand and bowed like he would with anyone else and she did the same as if they were of equal rank. Were they now? Is that what she’d been discussing so intently with the King? The questions burned his lips, but he didn’t want to know. He’d rather not know the details, only that she’d get what she wanted, and he would be waiting. Hands linked, they circled as the music shifted to a slower, heavier drumbeat. Around them the dance shifted to something more sultry, more earthy. It was infectious, pulsing in his body and baying for blood.

  She stepped closer, her lips parting. His hands skimmed down her torso to her hips; he dragged her close for a moment. Their bodies touched; her breath was on his neck. She smelled like a joy he could never hold on to. He let her go and she spun away, as if tempting him to chase and capture. She was already his; he wouldn’t let her go, even if they couldn’t be together right now. They would be together.

  When he grasped her hand and drew her against him, her back to his chest, she didn’t resist. Was she putting on a show? He tore his gaze from her to scan the room, but everyone was involved in their own dancing—some had already moved to the shadowed grottoes created by the imported trees.

  He would take what he could have tonight and be happy; he had at least had her in his arms and was doing nothing that others weren’t. He was being almost tame. His hand smoothed over her belly, across her hip; he jerked her closer so the curve of her butt pressed against his hardened shaft. He’d like nothing better than to drag her off somewhere private but they would be missed. He placed a kiss on her shoulder. His fingers laced with hers as he lifted her arm, then let his hand trail down and brush the curve of her breast. She bent her arm to run her fingers through his hair.

  “I want you,” he murmured, not caring if she heard over the music and the sounds of other people dancing and fucking.

  She turned in his arms. Her eyes were glittering as if full of stars. “Don’t make me want what I cannot have tonight.” But her hand was on his chest, her fingernails pressing against his skin.

  He’d rather pain in his skin than his heart. “And tomorrow?”

  Verden lifted her, then let her slide down his body. When her feet touched the ground, she broke the contact. She stalked around him, her hand smoothing across his bare back. He caught her as she swept past. With hands crossing their bodies, he danced a few formal steps to the much faster beat. She followed his lead as if accepting that he had won and she was his.

  Only for the dance.

  It was enough. For tonight.

  She leaned back over his arm and he kissed her naval, before swooping her up. Her arms wrapped around his neck briefly before snapping away too fast for it to be part of the dance. Verden spun to see what had shocked her.

  The Queen was clapping and by her side the King was still, as if carved in granite.

  He drew away from Taryn and bowed to the royals and hoped that they had just enjoyed the dance and saw nothing more. His chest was heaving, his blood was hot, and his skin was like ice. The Queen’s glee was too much of a contrast to her husband’s empty face.

  Without looking at Taryn, he walked away, and he could sense her doing the same, felt the distance between them. He was aware of her as she took a goblet from a shadow servant and tried to disappear into the darkness.

  The King’s gaze fell on him, and he beckoned Verden forward with the smallest curve of his fingers. Dread swelled in his gut and he knew he’d stepped into a trap set by the Queen. He looked at her; a small smile turned the corners of her lips, the luminescent paint turning her face into a grimacing mask.

  The sword in his heart twisted. She knew about him and Taryn.

  Tonight had been all about him. The wild fae. Her asking him to dance with Taryn.

  The Queen had proven to Gwyn that he couldn’t trust his Hunter or his mistress. What a fool he’d been. He should have paid more attention to the games and worried less about how much he wanted Taryn. Verden swallowed as he walked over, but already he could feel the river of the drowned souls closing over his head and smothering him. He should have been more careful.

  He should have done a hundred things differently in those few short moments.

  Now they were undone. Maybe.

  Perhaps he could talk his way out of it. One dance at a festival meant nothing. He strolled over as if he’d done nothing wrong. But he had. Every time he’d taken Taryn across the veil, he’d broken the order that she remain in Annwyn; every time he’d kissed her, he’d known the King would be wounded if he thought his would-be mistress were with someone else. Every time he’d tried not to fall in love with her, he knew he was risking losing something most fairies couldn’t grasp. Few at Court could make the sacrifice required to love. Most married for privilege or power.

  His father had been right. Court had nothing to offer the heart, but he’d been too young to appreciate the words.

  The King looked at him as if he’d just crawled out from under a toadstool. “You danced well.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He inclined his head. Please just let this go; let us all walk away and be sane in the morning. Then he’d try and keep it all in again and try not to think of what was going on when he closed his eyes to sleep.

  “I think you enjoyed it far more than me. You seem to know her far better than me. How is that?”

  Verden lifted his gaze and met the King’s pale, unflinching stare. There was no friendship left between them and the loyalty was stretched tenuously fine. If Gwyn did anything to hurt Taryn, there would be reparation to be made.

  “Answer me.”

  He wouldn’t lie but he wasn’t going to condemn himself or Taryn either. “I’ve seen her at Court.”

  Gwyn placed his hand on Verden’s shoulder as if he were just talking; around them the party continued as if nothing were amiss. Damn the Queen and her jealousy. If she’d let it ride out, they could have all walked away with scratches instead of cuts.

  The King’s fingers wrapped around the back of his neck and their fake horns clashed. “How long have you been bedding her?”

  “She is your mistress. What we did meant nothing. It happened before your intents were clear.” It sounde
d like hollow excuses even in his ears.

  “You think I’m a fool? I know what you’re like. I watched as you clawed your way to the top. I admired that you always put so much on the line. But you’ve crossed too many today.”

  Verden turned his head and used his horns to push back and make breathing space. Sweat was cooling on his skin, chilling him. “Does it matter what happens when the leaves fall around us? We play and party but winter draws closer. Let it go.”

  “You are telling me to let it go?” The King tossed his head, and the antlers caught Verden on the cheek.

  Verden stepped back. He used the back of his hand to wipe his cheek. It came away slick and covered in blue blood. Now they had an audience.

  “You’ve claimed first blood. I’ll walk away.” He kept his voice low to stop others from overhearing. It was bad enough that they watched with interest.

  “No, you struck the first blow.” He pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head as if the antlers weighed too much. “You betrayed me. Now you will pay.”

  Verden lowered his gaze to the floor. “What do you desire, sire?”

  The King was silent. Verden counted his heartbeats while he waited. Three…five…eight. He wanted to look up, but didn’t.

  “I want a hunt. Winner keeps the prize.”

  Verden risked looking up. “Sire?”

  What exactly did he mean by hunt?

  “Taryn will be the doe. Whoever catches her keeps her.”

  While time moved differently in Annwyn than the mortal world, Verden was sure it slowed just around him. He glanced at the Queen, who hadn’t looked this happy in too long. He caught Felan’s gaze, but the Prince looked away. Held by the Prince was Taryn. He couldn’t read her expression in the dim light, but Felan was doing his best to keep her from making this worse. He could see Felan’s lips moving but couldn’t understand the words.

  Worse. How much worse could this get? The King wanted to turn Taryn into a doe and then hunt her down. “I will not shoot her.”

  “Then you will lose. But you will hunt at my side one last time, Lord Verden.”